Addicted to ebay?
by Anna Skywalker
Summary: Obi-Wan happens upon e-bay while doing a search. little does he know, e-bay is one of the most addictive sites ever created. Based partly on my own addiction to e-bay ^_^;; R&R please! **Grammer errors fixed**


**                          Addicted to E-bay**

Disclaimer:  I do not own Star Wars or E-bay. Or free cell. Does anyone own free cell? 

Warnings: non-slash.  No romance what-so-ever anyway.

Author's notes: Obi-Wan is an apprentice. He is 14 years old in this fic. I came up with this idea after I became addicted to e-bay.  I know they don't have e-bay in the SW universe. They do in this fic because I said so. 

I know absolutely nothing about SW currency except what to call it. So just bear with me on that. You could say, for the purpose of this fic, that 1 Republic credit is equal to 1American dollar. I know that's probably way off, but this will make everything so much simpler.

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Obi-Wan sat at his computer, doing a search on the latest Corellian fighter model (A/N: that's model as in the kind you glue together, although I doubt they use glue in SW) He had heard from his friend Garen that it had just come out and was supposedly the best one yet.  Eventually, he came upon a site called "e-bay" it looked promising enough so he entered.  He did a search on the model he was looking for and found one that was for 30 Republic credits.  He thought for a minute. He had plenty of money for that…Although that money was for missions only… 

His hands started shaking.  _"Oh well,"_ he thought, _"I've got more then enough…what harm will it do?"  He registered with the site and placed a bid.  But the auction was still about eight Coruscant standard hours from being over…he decided to look through the site some more while he waited. "I won't buy anything else," he promised himself aloud. "I'll just look around a bit"  _

Seven hours and fifty standard minutes later, Obi-Wan had placed bids on two more models and used a "buy it now" option on another. He was now checking back to see how his first bid was doing.  He gasped.  Ten more people had bid and the price had nearly tripled.  He scowled and placed another bid of 88 Republic credits.  Ten minutes to go… he paced his room, checking back every so often…nine minutes….seven…five…one…."YES!!!" he shouted. No one else had placed bids.  He proceeded to the check out and finalized the purchase.  Slowly a grin spread over his face. This was truly a great place, this "e-bay". He would have to come back more often.

A week later Obi-Wan was lightsaber training with his Master. He wasn't doing so well either. He was tired, as if he'd been up all night and he kept looking at his chronometer.  Qui-Gon whirled to come at Obi-Wan from behind.  Obi-Wan barely parried the blow and glanced at his chronometer again.  His eyes widened.  "Sorry Master I have to go...It's...um …important." He said and ran out of the training room to his quarters.  Qui-Gon stared after him.  He frowned and followed his Padawan.  He opened the door to Obi-Wan's quarters to find the boy yelling various insults at his computer.  

He turned and saw his Master standing in the doorway, staring at him. Obi-Wan turned red.

 "Um…Hello Master…Well, you see…um…someone outbidded me and I was a little…upset."

Qui-Gon raised an eyebrow at him.  He walked over to the computer and motioned for Obi-Wan to get out of the chair.  He sat down and looked at the screen.  It was an auction for a set of eight models.  He looked at the price and his face registered surprise.  

"Padawan….Why are you using 500 of your credits on models? That money is strictly for missions." 

"Well, at first it was only 90 credits but this stupid monkey-lizard kept out-bidding me. So then it got kinda…expensive…" said Obi-Wan sheepishly. "I'm sorry, Master it won't happen again"

Qui-Gon looked up his user's profile.  He had purchased three items so far.  His total amount spent was—

 "200 hundred credits, Padawan. 200 credits.  That money is for missions only!"  Qui-Gon said disapprovingly. 

"But Master, the prices here are much better then what you'd get in a shop—" Qui-Gon gave him a stern look and he shut his mouth. 

 "Padawan, I'm afraid I'm going to have to ban you from 'e-bay'" 

"Noooooo!! Anything but that, Master!"  

"I'm sorry Obi-Wan, I have no choice. You can't go around running up bills like these," said Qui-Gon.

"Can't I just look? I promise I won't buy anything…" said Obi-Wan with a pleading look.

"Well, alright, but just to make sure you aren't tempted…" Qui-Gon deleted Obi-Wan's account.  "And we'll continue that training session after you've had a little sleep," he said.

Obi-Wan nodded. "Yes Master." 

Two weeks later, a package for Obi-Wan arrived at the Temple.  It was the first model that Obi-Wan had ordered. His account had been deleted too soon for him to get the other two.  He carried it to his room and opened it. Inside was the model he'd ordered. As he worked on putting it together, he thought about his past addiction to e-bay.  He had a vision of what might have happened if Qui-Gon hadn't stopped him.  

He saw himself as an old man on a desert planet, in a tiny hut with only a bed and a computer.  He was sitting at the computer staring at the screen with wide, bloodshot eyes. Occasionally he would mutter incoherently to himself.  He typed a few keys and smiled.  Suddenly, his smile turned to a frown and he began cursing at the computer. He angrily hit the power switch and turned off the computer.  He crossed his arms and sat there pouting for a moment.  His eyes drifted to the blank screen and his arms slowly went back to his sides. He suddenly whirled, hit the power button again, and accessed e-bay.  He began typing madly as a deranged grin spread over his face.

Obi-Wan's eyes snapped open and he cried out clutching his head.  Qui-Gon opened the door. "Obi-Wan? What's wrong?"

Obi-Wan sat up. "I just had a vision…. of what would have happened if I'd stayed addicted to e-bay.  Thank you, Master, for stopping me."

"You're welcome, Padawan," he said. He glanced at the model. "Is that what you bought from e-bay?"

Obi-Wan nodded. "Yes, Master."

"I'm afraid I'll have to confiscate that," he said.

Obi-Wan sighed and handed it to him.  "Yes, Master"

"Training session in one hour." Qui-Gon said over his shoulder as he walked out of the room

Obi-Wan sat down in front of his computer. "Yes, Master," he said a third time.  

He turned to his computer. "Let's see what games I have…" he muttered. He finally brought up a card game called "free cell." He shrugged. _"Well, it's better then nothing…"_  He thought as he began to play.

                                                        The End

Did you like it? R&R please!!! For those of you who don't know, free cell is very, very addictive. My mom started playing it a couple years ago and now she's like obsessed with it.  Same thing with a lot of other people, or so I've heard. I think I'll keep this a one-shot fic. 

2/15/03: New and improved grammar!


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